Chinese Internet users 'don't care' if Google quits: Survey

BEIJING: Most Chinese netizens "don't care" if the US Internet giant Google quits the country amid a censorship row with the Communist party government here, a survey has suggested.

Nearly 84 per cent Chinese Internet users, who responded to a survey, believe they will be ok with a no-Google Internet despite all predictable inconvenience.

In a survey conducted by the official website of the Global Times newspaper, an affiliate of the government-owned People's Daily, Internet users were asked "What's your opinion of Google's pulling out of China?"

Up to 84 per cent of more than 27,000 respondents answered the "Don't care" option, official Xinhua news agency reported.

"If Google wants to leave, just do it, and I will turn to Baidu," the Chinese search engine which has a large share in the country's 400 million strong Internet market. Google has 30 per cent share.

"For sure we can survive without Google," said an anonymous comment from Shandong province on the news portal Xinmin.cn.

After Google announced its plans to quit China, the Chinese official media has launched a broadside against it, accusing the search engine of politicising its issue and refusing to abide by local law.

Google stirred up controversy in the world's media and on the Internet in January when the company's chief legal officer, David Drummond, said in a blog that Google might shut down google.cn and its China office due to disputes with the Chinese government and unidentified cyber attacks against its Chinese users, Xinhua said.

The drama has continued for more than two months, during which its senior executives reiterated the company's threat to stop "censoring search results in China," while at the same time revealing the company was "negotiating with the Chinese government," it said.

The Chinese government has insisted that it maintains its regulation of the Internet and that foreign companies must abide by Chinese laws and regulations.

Google has had problems in other countries too, ranging from lawsuits to disputes with governments in Germany, Britain, France, the Republic of Korea and its homeland, the United States, the state-run news agency said.

However, Chinese users fear they will be unable to use the English-language google.com and other of its services, such as Gmail and Gtalk, if it shuts down google.cn.